Conference News and Events

We have just finished judging all our Proposals and will be sending out notifications of acceptance (and non-acceptance) later this week. Thank you all for your submissions and we look forward to seeing your proposals in action during DML2012!

Watch Tracy Fullerton discuss her subtheme for #DML2012, "Re-imagining Media for Learning", with Howard Rheingold. In the video, she also discusses her Featured Session "This is Not an Orientation: Gameful Layers for the Freshman Experience". The session, to be moderated by Donald Brinkman of Microsoft Research, will include presentations from Tracy Fullerton (USC Interactive Media), Jeff Watson (USC iMAP), Ben Stokes (USC Annenberg), Andy Phelps (RIT), Liz Lawley (RIT) and Kurt Squire (University of Wisconsin, Madison). A short panel abstract is included below.

This is Not an Orientation: Gameful Layers for the Freshman Experience

The transition to college is a difficult experience for many young people, marked by rapid change as well as social, emotional and intellectual challenges. Additionally, today's students may feel disconnected from traditional university classroom materials and structures, spending the majority of their out of class time interacting via text and web. This session will look at two very different experimental games which attempt to scaffold that freshman experience, allowing digital natives to bring their existing communication and media skills to bear on the building of college-level social groups and 21st century skills such as team-building, problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, brainstorming, experimentation, etc. The two case studies were both launched in Fall of 2011 and each team has worked to assess and evaluate the outcomes so far. Just Press Play, from the Rochester Institute of Technology, is funded by Microsoft Research, and is an achievement-based system that encourages students to think of the obstacles in their path as part of a narrative of their educational development. Reality Ends Here, from the University of Southern California, is an internally funded project from the School of Cinematic Arts. Structured as an alternate reality game, the experience introduces students to the culture and history of the school, encouraging them to become part of that tradition from day one. Designers and evaluators from each project will discuss learning goals, design strategies, assessment approaches, preliminary outcomes and next steps for these innovative digital learning environments.